Looking for ways to build financial wealth long-term without adding more work to your daily life? Residual income allows you to increase your fortune passively — meaning you’re earning cash while you eat, sleep, and brush your teeth. With the substantial increase of online platforms and opportunities, residual income is easier to achieve than ever before.
The second form of residual income, passive income, is often a vital part of wealth creation. There are only so many hours in each day, and when a person trades hours for dollars, there is a maximum amount of income that person can earn. For instance, if a person earns a specific amount each hour, there is a limit to how many hours are available to work. Once they reach that maximum amount of time, they cannot earn more money.
I’m a 45 year old business owner who also has focussed on diversifying my income streams. I have a short term vacation rental in Florida that I bought for $390k in 2012 and net rental income for the last three years has been growing steadily. 2015 I am at $70k gross right now but should end up at $80-85k with net around $45k plus we use the place about 35 nights a year.
Keeping it empty — not a bad idea, especially to save taxes. I am thinking of living in my bigger unit for lifestyle and tax reasons. But check with your insurance company. Sometimes the rates and coverage are different for vacant property, and there are requirements for regular inspection. In my city, there is also a local property tax fee for holding vacant rental property due to the housing shortage.
If you happen to be a photography enthusiast, consider selling your photos to stock-image websites like Shutterstock, Alamy, and iStockPhoto. The demand for high quality pictures in commensurate with the competitiveness of this business. So, if you find a niche (such as landscape photography or business photography) and establish yourself as an expert in it on even one site, you can certainly earn a lot of money in your sleep.
Yet, there’s a level of determination that sets in when we truly want something badly enough. It allows us to supersede the realms of so-called impossibility, able to wield and manipulate the precious seconds, minutes and hours we do have in a day rather than squandering it. But that’s also why passive income is so important. Because we all have the same amount of time in a day, we can only earn so much money when we’re solely engaged in active-income-related endeavors. But we also know that producing any reasonable amount of passive income is monumentally difficult.
As long as it’s something I believe it and support, it’s a win – win. Companies I’ve been approached by in the last two years include John Hancock, Credit Karma, Discover, Capital One, MasterCard, and GM, just to name a few. It’s been so fun helping these awesome companies create their own marketing plans, whether through video or other online media.
One great way to generate a passive income is through affiliate marketing. Now, this does depend on the size of your list. Yes, size matters when it comes to your list. Especially if you're looking to make some serious money and do it on autopilot. But, list-building takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. And you need to add value to your list or you become obsolete.
For those of you who don’t want to come up with a $220,000 downpayment and a $900,000 mortgage to buy the median home in SF or NYC, who don’t want to deal with tenants or remodeling, and who wants to not do any work after the investment is made, check out Fundrise. They are my favorite real estate crowdsourcing company founded in 2012 and based in Washington DC. They are pioneers in the eREIT product offering and they’re raising an Opportunity Fund to take advantage of new tax favorable laws.

I just wanted to say how nice it is to see such a positive exchange between strangers on the Internet. Seriously, not only was this article (list) motivating and well-drafted, the tiny little community of readers truly were a pleasant crescendo I found to be the cause of an inward smile. Thank you, everyone, and good luck to you all with your passive income efforts!! 🙂

(1) You don’t seem to be into REITs much. Private or public traded. Personally I find high-quality retail REITs quite attractive at today’s valuations. One of my favorite public REIT today is Simon Property Group (SPG). IMO they are being short-changed by the market today – yielding nearly 5%. I am happy collecting dividends! Have you considered non-traded REITs? I have been intrigued by Blackstone’s BREIT (core real-estate). It looks like a very safe bet but I haven’t invested in it yet. I’d have to open a wrap-fee account with a broker to be able to invest in it.

​Self Publishing is mainstream today. When you purchase an eBook off of Amazon there’s a pretty good chance you’re buying a self-published book. Self-publishing is also ridiculously easy. I tried this a few years ago and couldn’t believe how simple the process was. To self-publish a book you’ll first need to write and edit it, create a cover, and then upload to a program such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. Don’t expect instant success though. There will need to be a lot of upfront marketing before you can turn this into a passive income stream.

You must sacrifice the pleasures of today for the freedom you will earn tomorrow. In my 20s, I shared a studio with my best friend from high school and drove beater cars worth less than 10% of my annual gross income. I’d stay until after 7:30pm at work in order to eat the free cafeteria food. International vacations were replaced with staycations since work already sent me overseas 2-4X a year. Clothes were bought at thrift shops of course.
You may think of a savings account as just that, savings. But it’s actually another form of income as the money in the account will draw interest. And while this interest may be small, it’s still better than $0. Eventually, you can invest this money whenever an opportunity presents itself in order to gain other income streams. Look into Tax Free Savings Accounts if you are going this route.
Many people talk about passive income and create the impression that you never have to do anything to keep that income going. The truth is that you will normally have to keep your eye on things if you want it to run smoothly. For example Richard Branson doesn’t run any of the 400+ companies he started but he goes over the numbers each day to make sure they’re performing well and calls the CEO if there are any problems.